Home / Best apps to learn a language / Croatian
Prices and language coverage checked in October 2026.
Croatian has 5.1 million native speakers by Ethnologue’s count, as Wikipedia cites it. It is the language of Croatia, one of three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina and an official EU language since 1 July 2013. It is built on the same base as Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, yet it keeps its own words, Ijekavian spelling and the Latin alphabet alone. The hard parts are the grammar (seven cases, three genders and verb aspect) and a pitch accent that ordinary spelling never marks.
Most big apps skip it. Duolingo, Babbel, Busuu and Rosetta Stone have no Croatian, CroatianPod101 is a parked domain, and Mondly’s development ended in June 2026. What remains is a free course ladder from the University of Zagreb, a few small vendors, two podcasts and tutors. So the apps below are compared on whether they teach Croatian rather than Serbian, how they explain the cases, whose voices you hear, where they stop, what is free on day 30 and who corrects your speech.
The US Foreign Service Institute puts Croatian in category III (of I to IV), about 1,100 class hours for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency.
The 2017 Declaration on the Common Language, with more than 10,000 signatures, calls Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin one standard language of the polycentric type, and Croatia’s government opposed it; their speakers understand each other. On the page they differ: Croatian writes mlijeko where Serbia writes mleko, prefers trebam ići where Serbian prefers treba da idem, and has its own words (kruh, tjedan, vlak, tisuća) and Slavic month names (siječanj, veljača). Pimsleur and Mondly sell Croatian, not Serbian; Ling, Mango and LingQ keep Croatian and Serbian apart. Buy the Croatian course, and read Serbian Latin texts as extra practice.
Croatian nouns, adjectives and pronouns change their endings across seven cases, nouns have three genders, and verbs are perfective or imperfective in aspect. Short unstressed words, the clitics, sit in second place in the sentence in a fixed order: the question particle, the auxiliaries, dative and accusative pronouns, se, then je, per Wikipedia. Easy Croatian explains all of it in English, and the University of Zagreb’s courses teach grammar inside the units; Pimsleur and Ling teach by pattern. Use one app that explains, and drill beside it.
Gaj’s Latin alphabet has 30 letters, 3 of them digraphs (dž, lj, nj), and each stands for one sound, so you can read a word aloud in your first week. What the spelling leaves out is the pitch accent, four kinds of it (short or long, falling or rising), and vowel length, which only dictionaries mark; the stress rarely falls on the last syllable. Č and ć are two sounds, though some speakers merge them. Learn each new word from a native recording, never from its letters alone.
Pimsleur sells one level of 30 lessons, Mango has 83 lessons, and Ling’s 5 levels carry no CEFR label. The University of Zagreb’s free ladder, A1.HR, A2.HR and the LearnCro app, runs to B1 by Croaticum’s labels, and Easy Croatian’s 66 chapters reach about B1 by our estimate. HiT-1, the university’s online course with a tutor, costs about US$619 (€550) for A1. Above B1 the teaching is Croaticum’s courses in Zagreb, its textbooks to C1 and tutors. Plan on a tutor from A2.
Naturalisation asks for Croatian and the Latin script at B1 and a culture test, 15 questions from 110 published in Narodne novine 6/2021, 10 right within 60 minutes; emigrants and their descendants who apply under Article 11 are exempt. Long-term residence takes the same B1 exam, about US$158 (€140) at Croaticum in Zagreb or about US$191 (€170) at POU Žižić in Split. Amendments to the Aliens Act passed on 15 May 2026 ask third-country workers for A1.1 within a year to renew their permit; we could not confirm when they take effect. Book the exam your office names.
Best free university course
Croaticum, the University of Zagreb’s centre for Croatian as a second and foreign language, built 3 free courses, A1 to B1 by its labels and 80 units each: A1.HR and A2.HR on the web, about 45 minutes a unit, and the LearnCro app for B1, launched on 12 March 2026. It is the free course we would start with.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A0 to B1 learners who want a free course in order, with the grammar explained, from a Croatian university.
Best structured course
Ling’s Croatian course is a phone game in 50 units and 5 levels, per an August 2026 review, named Beginner to Expert by Ling, with no CEFR label. It is the daily habit Duolingo does not offer for Croatian, and it explains little grammar, so it needs Easy Croatian or a tutor beside it.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A0 to A2 learners who want a daily Croatian game on their phone and will pay for it.
Best live tutors
Preply lists 63 Croatian tutors, and its Croatian page prints averages of US$33 an hour for tutors from Croatia, US$34 from Bosnia and Herzegovina and US$30 from Serbia, so ask a tutor which standard they teach. Below B1, pick a trained teacher who can explain the cases in your language; from B1 on, a weekly lesson corrects your Croatian.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Anyone from A1 who needs a person to talk to and to explain the cases, in the Croatian of Croatia.
Best free course with a library card
Mango’s Croatian is a course built on conversations, 3 units, 15 chapters and 83 lessons by Mango’s own language list, with grammar notes, culture notes and a voice comparison tool. Many US public libraries give it free with a library card, which makes it a second free course beside the University of Zagreb’s.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A0 to A2 learners with a US library card who want a guided start at no cost.
Best free grammar course
A free course in Croatian grammar, written in English by one author, Daniel N., who says he is not a professional teacher: 66 chapters from the alphabet to verbal nouns, with quizzes, a Core Dictionary and 250+ Essential Verbs, A1 to B1 by our estimate. Keep it open beside Ling or Pimsleur, which teach by pattern.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A1 to B1 learners who want the cases and verbs explained in plain English, for free.
Best for reading real books
Lingo7 puts a translation in your own language under every sentence of a Croatian book (49 languages), reads it aloud and drills saved words in 12 kinds of exercise. It has no Croatian shelf, so you read its Stories, then the classics you import, free as EPUB from Croatian Wikisource. It is our app, and it has no course.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A2 to B1 learners reading the Stories, and readers from B2 with their own Croatian EPUBs, such as the free classics on Croatian Wikisource, who want their own language under the text.
Best for speaking from lesson one
Pimsleur’s Croatian is one level of 30 audio lessons, about 16 hours, in “the standard dialect, štokavski”, per its page: you answer out loud, and words come back at spaced intervals. Pimsleur publishes no CEFR level, sells no Level 2 and has no Serbian or Bosnian course. A month of Croatian Premium covers the 30 lessons at one a day.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A trip in a month, a commute, or anyone who wants to say their first Croatian sentences out loud before they read.
Best free listening
SBS Croatian, the Croatian service of SBS, an Australian public broadcaster, makes this podcast with Macquarie University: the news read slowly, with a transcript for each episode. It is the free listening we would add once you reach A2, and it suits A2 to B1 by our estimate.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Learners from A2 who want slow, real Croatian news with a transcript, for free.
Best learner podcast
Three hosts, Uncle Mike, Tony D and DJ Moe, have talked through Croatian words and culture in English every two weeks since 2019: 186 episodes, A0 to A2 by our estimate. It is a light start for heritage learners and travellers, not a course.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Beginners and heritage learners who want Croatian words and culture in their ears on a commute.
Best for reading with audio
LingQ has Croatian apart from Serbian, with its own Mini Stories, 62 lessons at Beginner 2 by LingQ’s label, and an importer that turns any article, ebook or YouTube video into a lesson with a dictionary on each word. Beyond the Mini Stories the Croatian library is shared by users, so plan on importing your texts.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A2 and up readers who import Croatian articles and podcasts, with the budget for it.
Best for cases in sentences
Clozemaster has Croatian from English: fill the missing word in a real sentence, in 10 Fast Track levels, the first of them 1,000 sentences on the 1,000 most common words, and the case endings come up in every sentence. Tatoeba, the open corpus it builds on, holds 6,551 Croatian sentences against 52,110 Serbian, and Clozemaster publishes no Croatian count.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Ten minutes a day on the case endings from A2 upward, beside a course or a book.
Best for video input
Croatian subtitles and a translation into your language side by side on YouTube, with a dictionary on click; the subtitles and lookups cost nothing. It needs a video with Croatian subtitles, so check before you settle on a channel such as HRT’s. The Netflix side broke in June 2026 and in September works with known bugs.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B1 and up with a laptop, turning Croatian YouTube into listening practice.
A1.HR, A2.HR and LearnCro + Easy Croatian + Pimsleur
Start the University of Zagreb’s free A1.HR course and keep Easy Croatian open for the cases it uses. Add Ling if you want a daily game on your phone, or a month of Pimsleur’s 30 lessons if you would rather speak first; with a US library card, Mango Languages is a second free course. Put Let’s Learn Croatian in your ears on the way to work.
A1.HR, A2.HR and LearnCro + Clozemaster + Preply
Keep your course going to B1: A2.HR, then the LearnCro app, both free and B1 at the top by Croaticum’s labels. Drill the case endings with Clozemaster, 30 sentences a day for free, listen to Lagani hrvatski, and book a Preply tutor once a week. Start reading with Lingo7’s Stories at A2, then Croatian EPUBs you import, since it has no Croatian shelf.
Lingo7 + Language Reactor + Preply
Courses thin out here. Read Šegrt Hlapić, Šenoa or Novak in Lingo7 from free Croatian Wikisource EPUBs or your own books, watch Croatian YouTube with Language Reactor where a video has Croatian subtitles, and talk about all of it with your tutor. With a date for the B1 exam or a Croaticum test, book a tutor who has prepared people for it.
| App | Role | Levels | Coverage for Croatian | Free | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1.HR, A2.HR and LearnCro | Best free university course | A0 to B1 | Standard Croatian; A1.HR, A2.HR and LearnCro, 80 units each, A1 to B1 by Croaticum’s labels; English or Spanish interface | All of it | Free |
| Ling | Best structured course | A0 to A2 | Standard Croatian, apart from Ling’s Serbian and Bosnian; 50 units in 5 levels per an August 2026 review, named Beginner to Expert by Ling; no CEFR label | First 2 units | US$17 a month, US$8 a month yearly |
| Preply | Best live tutors | A1 to C2 | 63 Croatian tutors; tutors from Croatia average US$33 an hour, from Serbia US$30, per the Croatian page | None | Tutors from Croatia US$33 an hour, subscription only |
| Mango Languages | Best free course with a library card | A0 to A2 | Standard Croatian, apart from Mango’s Serbian; 3 units, 15 chapters, 83 lessons by Mango’s list; no level stated | Free through many US libraries | Free via many libraries; US$10 a month yearly |
| Easy Croatian | Best free grammar course | A1 to B1 | Standard Croatian, with notes on Ikavian and on Bosnian, Serbian and Montenegrin; 66 chapters, A1 to B1 by our estimate; PDF and Kindle file | All of it | Free |
| Lingo7 | Best for reading real books | A2 to C1 | No Croatian public domain shelf; Stories in two versions, adapted for A1 to A2 and original for B1 to B2; your own books in 7 formats (EPUB, PDF, FB2, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, HTML); native audio in a Croatia accent, one voice; translation into 49 languages | First page of each book | US$5 a month, US$2.50 a month yearly |
| Pimsleur | Best for speaking from lesson one | A0 to A1 | Level 1 only: 30 lessons, about 16 hours; “the standard dialect, štokavski”; no vendor CEFR claim | 7 day trial | About US$20 a month, or US$150 once |
| Lagani hrvatski | Best free listening | A2 to B1 | Standard Croatian news read slowly, with transcripts; episode 226 on 31 August 2026; A2 to B1 by our estimate | All of it | Free |
| Let’s Learn Croatian | Best learner podcast | A0 to A2 | 186 episodes since 2019, every two weeks; Croatian words and culture explained in English; A0 to A2 by our estimate | All of it | Free |
| LingQ | Best for reading with audio | A2 to C1 | Croatian apart from Serbian; official Mini Stories, 62 lessons at Beginner 2 by LingQ’s label; other lessons shared by users; imports | 20 saved words | US$15 a month, US$10 a month yearly |
| Clozemaster | Best for cases in sentences | A2 to B1 | Croatian from English; Fast Track Levels 1 to 10, Level 1 with 1,000 sentences; Tatoeba holds 6,551 Croatian sentences | 30 sentences a day | US$13 a month, US$7 a month yearly |
| Language Reactor | Best for video input | B1 to C2 | Any Croatian YouTube video with subtitles; no Croatian title confirmed on US Netflix; Netflix working with known bugs in September 2026 | Most of it | US$6 a month, US$3.33 a month yearly |
Prices are US store or vendor prices as of October 2026, yearly plans shown as the monthly equivalent. The same app often costs less on its own site than in the App Store, and more in Europe than in the US.
Free on this site: short Croatian texts at A1, A2 and B1 with a translation.
We have no affiliate deals with any app named here, and none of the links pay us. Prices and coverage come from the vendor’s own help or pricing pages or its US store listing, checked in October 2026, and every other figure names its source in the text; the judgement calls lean on independent reviews, and on the one star reviews for the parts a landing page never shows, like what happens on renewal. Where a vendor’s pages contradict each other, the card says so.
Refund rules, the traps to avoid and the same apps compared by level for every language are on the best apps to learn a language page.
No: Duolingo has no Croatian course, and none for Serbian or Bosnian, among its 40 courses from English, per its own course list on 5 October 2026. Babbel, Busuu and Rosetta Stone have no Croatian either, and Mondly’s development ended in June 2026. The free start is the University of Zagreb’s A1.HR course, then A2.HR and the LearnCro app, to B1 by Croaticum’s labels, with Easy Croatian for the grammar; Ling is the paid daily game, at US$16.99 a month or US$89.99 a year. Add a tutor once you can put a few sentences together.
The standard of the place you need: Croatian for Croatia, Serbian for Serbia. The 2017 Declaration on the Common Language calls them one standard language of the polycentric type, which Croatia’s government opposed, and speakers understand each other. Croatian keeps Ijekavian forms (mlijeko, dijete), prefers trebam ići to treba da idem, writes the future as radit ću, has words such as kruh, tjedan and vlak and Slavic month names, and uses Latin letters only. A Serbian text in Latin letters is readable for a Croatian learner. Pimsleur and Mondly sell Croatian, not Serbian; Ling, Mango and LingQ keep the two apart, so check which one you bought.
B1. Naturalisation asks for Croatian and the Latin script at B1, shown by a certificate from a university, a school or an authorised adult education institution, or by schooling in Croatia, plus a culture test: 15 of the 110 questions published in Narodne novine 6/2021, 10 right within 60 minutes, at a police station. Emigrants and their descendants who apply under Article 11 are exempt. Long-term residence takes the same B1 exam, about US$158 (€140) at Croaticum or about US$191 (€170) at POU Žižić in Split. No app is an exam course: prepare with LearnCro, Croaticum’s free B1 sample test and a tutor for the speaking part.
Yes, once you know the cases: Croatian spelling tells you how each word sounds, but not where the pitch accent falls, so read with audio. Graded readers are few, though FF press publishes Šegrt Hlapić adapted to B1. Lingo7, our app, puts a translation under each sentence of a Croatian book, reads it aloud in a Croatia accent and drills the words you save in 12 kinds of exercise, for US$5 a month or US$30 a year. It has no Croatian shelf, so begin with its Stories, then import the classics free as EPUB from Croatian Wikisource, such as the original Hlapić. eLektire has 378 school titles to read online with a free account; Project Gutenberg has no Croatian books.
LearnCro, the University of Zagreb’s free app for B1, with its free A1.HR and A2.HR web courses before it, all funded by Croatia’s Central State Office for Croats Abroad. For the grammar, Easy Croatian; for listening, Lagani hrvatski and Let’s Learn Croatian; for words in sentences, Clozemaster’s 30 free sentences a day; with a US library card, Mango Languages. For reading, Croatian Wikisource and eLektire. Ling’s free plan stops after 2 units, per an August 2026 review. For a tutor you pay: Preply on a subscription, or italki with none, with lessons from US$9 to US$30 among the first 20 tutors it lists.
Easy Croatian, for free: its chapters take the cases and verbs one at a time in plain English, A1 to B1 by our estimate. A1.HR, A2.HR and LearnCro teach the grammar inside their units, and Darko Matovac’s Basic Croatian Grammar (2022, A1 to B1 by its publisher) explains it in English on paper. Mango adds grammar notes to its conversations; Ling has very few grammar explanations, per an August 2026 review, and Pimsleur teaches by pattern. For drills, Clozemaster puts the endings in real sentences. A tutor who corrects your endings as you speak is the quickest check.
Read your first page free, in Croatian.